Egyptian Afterlife

We have two of our grandchildren and our niece staying with us for a few days and so we took them to an Egyptian exhibit at the art museum today. The emphasis of the exhibit was about the Egyptian afterlife and preparation for the afterlife. There were all types of coffins and mummies as well as all of the different types of prepatory clothing, jewelry and death masks made from precious gems and gold. But the most striking thing to me were all of the many, many gods and idols that were buried with the Egyptians.

I have always heard that the Egyptians had many gods, but I never realized how many--over 700. In fact, anything they feared they would simply make it into a god and then offer sacrifices to it and worship it so that it would "protect" them from the very thing they feared. Clever--if it only worked. They then made idols of all the different gods and buried them with the body to protect it in the afterlife.

Our grandchildren are 9 and 6 and when we pointed out some miniature animal gods made of gold (about 2-4 inches tall) the six year old laughed sarcastically and said, "That's not a god, it can't protect anybody." How amazing that a mere child of 6 can so clearly see that a statue of gold has no power and yet the very intelligent Egyptians depended on these toys. I was reminded of the verse in Romans 1: 22-25 where Paul says "Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things...and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator..."

This Egyptian exhibit was incredibly interesting and I'm glad we were able to view such awesome artifacts from history, but as we completed our tour and exited through the gift shop (clever marketing) it was basically impossible to buy any souvenirs unless you wanted to purchase an idol. Our niece, who is 16, said as we entered the gift shop, "Well, I guess you can't buy anything here unless you want a god."

The more I see and learn about the ancient Egyptians, the more I question their intelligence. On one level they were brilliant (architecture, writing, medical knowledge, etc.), but where it counts, (spiritually) they were fools--"professing to wise, they became fools". All of the preparations they made for the afterlife and netherworld we have now got on display in our museums--how intelligent were they, really?